Samsung Galaxy Tab (Sprint Version) Review and Ratings

Editors’ Rating:

Our Verdict:
If the Apple iPad is a bit too big (and its features too limited) for you, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this 7-inch media tablet's size, performance, and versatility. Read More…

What We Liked…

Gorgeous design

Fast performance

Very light, portable

Bright, beautiful display

MicroSD slot

Dual cameras

HDMI output

What We Didn’t…

Prone to fingerprints

Odd combo key on keyboard

Limited onboard apps

No USB port

Samsung Galaxy Tab (Sprint Version) Review

By Sarah E. Anderson, reviewed November 17, 2010

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The first real challenger to the Apple iPad in the mobile-tablet market is here: Samsung's Galaxy Tab, complete with Android certification and access to the Android Market. And it's a strong one. If you’re in the market for a wireless tablet and debating between the two, chances are, the things you’re most concerned about are size, platform, and—if you want a mobile 3G connection—carrier. Beyond that, you should be focusing on features and functionality. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is significantly smaller than the iPad, and whether that’s a plus or a minus really depends on personal preference. It runs on the Android operating system instead of Apple’s iOS—again, a personal preference. But it is also available via five major U.S. wireless carriers, and we don’t think anyone will complain about that wealth of choice. (A carrier-free, Wi-Fi–only version of the Galaxy Tab is also coming soon, parallel to the Wi-Fi versions of the iPad that debuted first.) And as for features and functionality, we think Samsung’s actually got Apple beat in that department.

The Home screen is bright and vivid. Sprint takes the initiative and changes up the initial background image, which we appreciate.

We reviewed the Sprint version of the Galaxy Tab. (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular also carry the device.) The model that Sprint offers has a white back cover (other carriers' Galaxy Tabs have black backs of various designs) and access to the Sprint Zone, which consists of a few Sprint-specific features and apps, none of which are overly compelling. The Tab runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo), which is a snappy little operating system but not anything above and beyond what was on any other Android device as we wrote this in mid-November 2010. (At the time of this writing, however, the next Android release, 2.3, code-named Gingerbread, was imminent.)

Pricing does vary from carrier to carrier. Purchased from Sprint without a two-year contract, the Galaxy Tab by itself will cost you $599. (T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular offer it for the same price; it's $50 more via AT&T.) With Sprint, you have two plan options: The first is $29.99 a month and allows for 2GB of data; the second, at $59.99, allows for 5GB of data. This 5GB plan is the most expensive such plan of the five carriers T-Mobile offers 5GB of data for $39.99 a month, and U.S. Cellular offers 5GB for $54.99. Verizon doesn’t offer a 5GB plan, exactly; instead, you can get a 1GB plan for $20, and pay $10 for each additional gig, so 5GB would end up costing $60 a month. AT&T’s maximum plan tops out at 2GB and costs $25 per month. Also note that Sprint offers a mobile hotspot option for an additional fee (more on that below).

Design

Unlike the iPad, you can hold the Galaxy Tab in one hand.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Galaxy Tab is its size. It's about the size of a thin paperback novel. You can easily hold the 7.5x4.7x0.5-inch device in one hand and maneuver it with the other, as opposed to the iPad, which you would need to hold in the crook of your arm. At just 13.6 ounces, it’s light enough to travel in a good-size handbag, a small shoulder bag, or even an inside (or outside, if you prefer) pocket on a sport coat. On the other hand, it was a little too heavy to hold in one hand for long periods of time, and it’s a little too narrow to prop on your knees on the couch for Web browsing or gameplay—something much more easily done with the iPad. How you go about using the Tab depends on your lifestyle, but overall this reviewer preferred the 7-inch size of the Galaxy Tab to the 10-inch size of the iPad for its mobility and ease of one-handed use.

The 7-inch display is also something of a personal preference, but with it comes the realization that most apps were not made for the Tab’s 1,024x600 resolution. Some apps (which you can purchase through the Android Market, a store much like the iTunes App Store) have been optimized for this screen size, but most—as far as we could tell in our trials, anyway—have not been. On the other hand, many apps made for iPhones haven’t been upped to the 1,024x768 resolution found on the iPad yet, either, but the workarounds with both devices seem to fill the bill: You either get a smaller app that doesn’t fill the whole screen, or you get a larger, pixelated app that does fill the screen but doesn’t look as good. Some popular apps we tried, such as the game Angry Birds, were sized properly, though, and looked gorgeous on this display.

On the bottom of the Tab, you’ll find a 30-pin connector that is capable of transmitting an HDMI signal, via an optional dock, to a larger display.

While Samsung did not include the same ultra-brilliant Super AMOLED screen found on Samsung's Galaxy phones, the Galaxy Tab's display was still gorgeous. Colors were bright and vivid, and the icons popped against the background. Fingerprints were an issue, however, as the glass became a smudged mess in no time. That said, we didn't notice them much when the screen was on, nor did we feel the need to give the glass a rub-down when watching a video or playing a game.

The top is unadorned, save for the standard audio-out jack.

Ease of Use

As with the iPad, for inputting data on the Galaxy Tab, you use an onscreen virtual keyboard, which you summon up by tapping in any search field or typing area. Typing on the virtual keyboard was easy, and for the most part, intuitive. A couple of little things made it different from typing on some other Android devices, such as the placement of the period/comma/question mark key next to the space bar. You hit the key once for a period, twice for a comma, and three times for a question mark, which works well enough…until you want an ellipsis, which you have to create manually, by entering a period, then a space, then a period, and so on.

The predictive-text function, which suggests words as you're typing them, isn’t turned on by default, but you can easily activate it by clicking on the Settings icon in the keyboard and selecting XT9 Predictive Text. As with other Android devices we’ve used, this was very useful and eliminated the need to switch to the secondary "number" keyboard in search of the apostrophe for commonly used contractions.

The onscreen keyboard was big and easy to use. Our only quibble: that period/comma/ question-mark key to the right of the spacebar.

Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 technology is the basis for the touch-interface options, as well as the placement of the widgets on the screen. It's also responsible for the haptic feedback on the Galaxy Tab (that is, the small vibrations that acknowledge when you’ve touched the screen). The glowing buttons just beneath the display—Menu, Home, Back, and Search—give off vibration response when you touch them, as well. And we have to say, once you get used to having that dedicated Back button, not having one on an iPad feels like a serious omission. Score one for Android in that department.

Features

In terms of features and functionality, nearly everything we griped about with the iPad is addressed in the Galaxy Tab. It has not just one, but two, cameras, so you can take photos and video with the back-facing, 3-megapixel camera, or do a live video chat via Qik (an included videoconferencing app) using the front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. This feature alone is a potential deal breaker for iPad shoppers. In addition, you’ll find a MicroSD card slot, with a 16GB card included inside. (The Galaxy Tab supports cards up to 32GB.) This adds to the (precious little) 2GB of onboard storage. Those two features make the difference between getting photos on your device—or not—for many users.

The front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels and allows for video conferencing. To its left is an ambient light sensor, which dims the display when you’re in a poorly lit area.

Samsung definitely made the right call on the cameras and card slot, though we would have preferred a regular SD-card slot instead of a MicroSD one. We also wish a standard USB port (for USB flash drives) were included or at the very least, a mini-USB port for transferring data from PCs and other devices. Nonetheless, the inclusion of the MicroSD slot is miles ahead of having none at all, and Samsung does include an SD-card adapter, so you can easily transfer your photos and videos taken with the Galaxy Tab to your PC.

The quality of those photos and videos was very good. Photos from the 3-megapixel camera, especially, looked great. Video from that camera looked good, though it wasn’t quite as impressive as the still shots it took. (It was a little grainy and exhibited some motion blur.) The quality of the video on the front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera was good, so long as the subject was well-lit. We found ourselves turning in circles to get our face out of the shadows in a typical office environment, but once we got overhead light directly above us, it worked well.

Along the right side, you’ll find a MicroSD card slot, a volume rocker, and the power button.

Along the left-hand side, you’ll find a microphone. You'll need to be careful shooting video, considering the placement of the microphone here. Too often, we found ourselves inadvertently covering the mic with our hands, blocking all the audio. On top is a standard audio-out jack, while the right side sports the power button, a volume rocker button, and the MicroSD card slot. Finally, along the bottom edge is the power connector, which is capable of sending HDMI output to an optional, proprietary dock for viewing media on a larger display. We've seen this dock at Samsung briefings; it will be available in the U.S. in mid-December for $49.99.

The Tab also supports Flash 10.1, which is a bonus over the iPad. We were able to watch videos and view Flash-based sites easily in the browser, though Hulu doesn't work with Android yet, so keep that in mind if you're a Hulu junkie. Pages loaded quickly while surfing, and when Flash was involved that did slow them down a bit (roughly 10 seconds), but at least they loaded.

Performance

Overall, we were very impressed with the Galaxy Tab’s performance. It comes with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and PowerVR GSX540 graphics (the latter of which you can also find in many smartphones to date). On average, it took the Galaxy Tab 40 seconds to boot from power-off to a fully functioning state. This is about twice as long as the iPad took to boot. Typically, we saw 19 or 20 seconds there. We played a handful of games on the Galaxy Tab, including Angry Birds, Pinball, and Solitaire, and never saw any stuttering or delays in gameplay.

Angry Birds is one app that has been optimized for the 1,024x600 resolution. Gameplay was smooth and addictive, just the way we like it.

Multitasking was a breeze on the Galaxy Tab. Just hold the Home button down for a few seconds, and a pop-up appears with other apps to choose among. Also, the accelerometer (the device's internal sensor that detects orientation) kept up with changing from portrait to landscape screen orientations very well. Our biggest complaint is waiting for Hotmail to load. Over the 3G connection, we once waited 2 minutes and 11 seconds for it to connect and update our account. In our experience, Hotmail and phones often don’t mix very well, but still, it shouldn’t take this long. Our Microsoft Exchange work e-mail account and personal Gmail accounts almost always loaded within a second or two.

We haven't formally bench-tested many Android-based devices as of yet, but we say with fair confidence that, judging from benchmark-test results we've seen on other Web sites, the Galaxy Tab did pretty well in a relative sense on our initial spate of tests. On the Linpack for Android test, which measures raw floating-point performance, the Galaxy Tab scored a promising 13.986. (Android phones can score anywhere from the single digits to nearly 30 on this test.) On the An3DBench test, which measures graphics performance, the Tab scored 7,122, which is exceptionally good for an Android device. All that being said, we're drawing most of our conclusions about this device based on our real-world, hands-on experience, since measuring the execution time of a single program in a multitasking environment is difficult for these tests to do.

Battery Life

Battery life was strong but not stellar. We tested the Galaxy Tab using its Sprint 3G connection, streaming episodes of CSI via TV.com. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections were disabled, and we had one e-mail account pushing to the device (though, to be fair, this test was done over a weekend, when minimal e-mail was being pushed). The Tab lasted 5 hours and 1 minute on our test, which is far less than the 13 hours of active use Sprint touts for the 4,000mAh battery, but it’s still strong for a device with a 7-inch screen. Our test is also something of a worst-case scenario; we expect you’ll typically see about 7 to 8 hours with moderate use.

We were also pleased at how well the device held a charge while sleeping. While leaving the Galaxy Tab on and unplugged overnight, we saw hardly any change in the battery meter. After the second night—and some further testing during the day—we still had about a third of the charge left.

Sprint’s version of the Galaxy Tab has a shiny white back cover. You can see the 3-megapixel camera here. (Its placement allows you to take photos and videos while using the screen as a viewfinder.) To the right of the camera is the flash.

The Galaxy Tab is indeed smart about conserving battery life—though maybe too smart for our liking. We noticed that as the battery drained, various functions stopped working. When the battery dropped below 15 percent, for instance, we couldn’t play movie trailers in Media Hub, Samsung's movie and TV app. Also, the screen brightness and touch buttons at the bottom dimmed, and no amount of adjusting could bring them back. While we appreciate the effort to eke out as much battery life as possible, we’d still like the option of overriding the battery-saving features in a pinch. Even when we went through the motions of disabling the battery-saving options, the screen brightness stayed dimmed.

Apps and More Hands-On Performance

We took the GPS apps for a test drive. We found that we had trouble loading maps and GPS applications in our office building in Manhattan. (To be fair, Manhattan and GPS rarely play nicely together.) Once we launched both the Nav app (the Galaxy Tab's standard GPS navigation application) and the Latitude app (which suggests friends nearby) on a bus in New Jersey, however, we were pleasantly surprised. We typed in "Starbucks" and were presented with a list of several nearby. When we selected one, a computerized voice managed to enunciate street names pretty well. Attach some Velcro to the back of the Galaxy Tab, slap the device on your car’s dashboard, and you’ll be all set.

Movie trailers played in letterbox format, but they looked great. Even for action-packed scenes, the Galaxy Tab never stuttered.

Other software that comes bundled on the device includes AllShare, for outputting your media to a bigger DLNA-certified display via Wi-Fi, andthe Media Hub, which lets you watch previews or rent or buy movies and TV shows. It's basically the Netflix of Android, and for the most part, we're pleased with it. The “What’s New” selection of Media Hub wasn’t vast, but it was good, featuring relatively new options such as the TV series The Event and The Closer, as well as movies from the past few years, such as Wanted and I Am Legend. Venturing over to the Movie Store, within Media Hub, brings up more movies in different genres. You also get ThinkFree Office Mobile for Android for document management, and that includes easy access to ThinkFree’s online component, which allows you to save your work online and access it from the Galaxy Tab or any other capable mobile device. ThinkFree Office is compatible with Microsoft Office.

Along the bottom of the Tab, you’ll find four familiar buttons: Menu, Home, Back, and Search. We sure do love that Back button.

Media plays back very well on the Galaxy Tab. During our five hours of viewing CSI, the display was bright, colors were accurate, and the processor seemed to keep up nicely with the playback. The experience was very enjoyable overall. We saw very few hiccups, but once again, a slight motion blur was present, and some background details did get lost. Also, when the battery started to die, the image got darker, and we would have preferred to watch as much as possible at half brightness than watch longer in the murk. The sound was impressively loud for such a small device. Of course, considering the speaker size, the quality is lackluster and lacks bass, but we could hear the actors’ voices and music just fine.

Other apps of note include a gorgeous calendar app that automatically synced with our Outlook calendar. You can choose from Day, Week, Month, or List displays. A Task Manager lets you see what’s going on with the Galaxy Tab in terms of resource usage, and a Digital Frame app plays a slide show of your pictures. Amazon’s Kindle app is also onboard, so you can you can use the Galaxy Tab as an e-reader.

We also came across the My Files folder tree, which works similarly to Windows’ Computer/My Computer folder tree. This isn’t something we typically see on Android phones, so it was a pleasant surprise here. Qik also comes preinstalled; it's the app that allows for two-way video calling. Your biggest challenge with Qik will be getting your friends on board with it. The mega-popular Skype app isn’t yet available for Android, but we’re eagerly awaiting that functionality, so you can do two-way video calls with people on their PCs.

The calendar view is gorgeous, with a wood-trim border and plenty of viewing options.

Recommendation

Perhaps one of best features of Sprint's version of the Galaxy Tab is that for an additional $29.99 a month, it can function as a mobile hotspot for up to five other Wi-Fi devices. The price is a little steep, but for families on the go or colleagues who travel together frequently, it could save a bundle in hotel fees for connecting laptops, iPads, and iPod Touches.

Mostly, though, we’re just happy that this Android tablet is certified, which means it has access to the Android Market and therefore, a near-unlimited number of apps. In the end, we believe it’s the rapidly growing Android Market that makes this a real iPad competitor, and it expands the potential for the platform exponentially. The software that comes bundled on the tablet won’t be nearly as relevant as what you’ll be able to download in the weeks and months to come.

Our quibbles with this device are few. The battery life could be a bit longer, but it’s workable as it is. We’d also like to have a little more control over the critical battery action (i.e, being able to keep the device working at full blast until it’s dead). The odd combo key in the keyboard takes a little getting used to, and we’d love a USB port. But those are small issues, not deal breakers.

As we said in the beginning, the choice will come down to personal preferences that you'll have to weigh yourself: size, operating system, and carrier. We like these aspects of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and both Samsung and Sprint have gone the extra mile to make it a truly useful, productive device that’s arguably even more versatile than the iPad.